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"Captain Haller Major Twing," said Clayley, introducing me. "Happy to know you, Captain. Can you find seats there? No. Come up this way. Cudjo, boy! run over to Colonel Marshall's tent, and steal a couple of stools. Adge, twist the neck off that bottle. Where's the screw? Hang that screw! Where is it anyhow?" "Never mind the screw, Mage," cried the adjutant; "I've got a patent universal here."
Harry and I were designated `beast-tamers; Frank the `bird-tamer; while Mary was appropriately styled the `tree-tamer. To Cudjo was assigned a very important share of the labour. He was to enclose the park for our deer, as well as the grounds for the botanic garden. He was also to make our traps and cages all of which things Cudjo knew how to do, and how to do them well.
All this did Cudjo with an expertness which surprised us, and would have surprised any one who was a stranger to the craft of the bee-hunter. He performed every operation with great nicety, taking care not to cripple the insect; and, indeed, we did not injure it in the least for Cudjo's fingers, although none of the smallest, were as delicate in the touch as those of a fine lady.
"`Oh! then it is an armadillo. "`An amadiller! Cudjo niver hear o' dat varmint afore.
On this branch, however, the squirrels had now gathered, one behind the other in a long string, and we could see the foremost of them straining himself as if to spring. "`Surely, they do not intend, surely, they cannot leap so far! said Mary, as we all stood holding our breath, and watching them with intense curiosity. "`Yes, Missa, replied Cudjo; `de do intend. Gosh! de leap him, too.
They were not likely to bark much more, although they howled a bit, as Cudjo reached them with his long spear, and finished them in a trice. "Mary was now brought back; and Cudjo, descending into the pit, secured the doe and fawns which were soon hoisted up, and put into the cart.
Captain Snipes and his man Cudjo had been brought up from childhood together; and the father of our hero being a professor of Christianity, a Baptist preacher, whose main excellence is "to teach little children to love one another," had taken great pains to inspire his son with love towards his little slave. Nor did that love pass unrequited.
We knew, however, it was not bad to eat, especially to people in our circumstances; and as soon as we had finished our breakfast, Cudjo and I whetted our knives, and having removed the skin, hung up the carcass alongside the remainder of the antelope.
A ridge-pole completed the frame, and that was laid by the evening of the fifth day. "Upon the sixth day, Cudjo went to work upon a large oak which he had felled and cut into lengths of about four feet each, at the beginning of our operations. It was now somewhat dry, so as to split easily; and with his axe and a set of wedges he attacked it.
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